Continuous distillation oven



Nov. 3, 1925s '1,560,311

J. METERS CONTINUOUS DISTILLA'MON QVEN F. 2 Filed July 23, 1924 5Shutsoshnt 2 II. l l

6 I /fv//ENTo/a'- Juf/EN Hifi/Ps Nov. 3 1925 J. METERS IJSTLLLTIQN SVENn. du

Patented Nov. 3, 1925.

UNITED STATES JULIEN PIETERS, 0F PARIS, FRANCE.

CONTINUOUS DISTILLATION OVEN.

Application led July 23, 1924.

T0 all whom t 711,113/ conferir.'

Be it known that I, J Umax Pln'rnns, a subject of the King of theBelgiens, and a resident of Paris, France, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Continuous Distillation Ovens, of which thefollowing is a specification.

The present invention relates to a continuous distillation oven intendedmore particularly for the distillation of lignite, peat, schistsawdust,and in general of any substance having a more or less pulverulent formand containing sufficient moisture to justify its preliminary drying.

This apparatus comprises a certain ninnber of Vertical distillationretorts or chambers, having in transverse section a length considerablygreater than their width and disposed in rowsiin two directions at rightangles to one another, within a single block of masonry, the individualretorts being separated by longitudinal walls, pierced by channelstraversed by the heating gases, and by transverse Walls pierced bypassages for the escape of the gases resulting from distillation.

All the retorts of one oven are surmounted by a single feed hopper.forming a drying chamber, in which the heaped-up substance to betreated, is separated from the top of the retort-heating zone only by alayer of material sufficient to vform an effective seal or obturator,without interposition of gates, registers or the like, between thematerial being subjected to distillation and that being dried; thedrying is eilected by the burnt gases -which after passing through theheating walls oi' the oven are distributed in a suitable manner at thebase of the drying chamber.

Steam 1s preferably injected into the coke or residue of distillation ofthe substance contained in the chambers o1; retorts, after this steamhas been superheated by the heat contained in this substance at thelower part of. the oven. by circulation in channels formed in themasonry walls between the different chambers.

The discharge of the substance from the oven is preferably produced bydistributing rollers, of which the axes are arranged per pendicularly tothe major axes of the horizontal section of these retorts; the rollersare f riren from the exterior of the furnace by toothed wheels allmeshing together in such a way as to produce rotation of any Serial No.727,737.

two adjacent rollers in opposite directions and to effect thesimultaneous movement of all the rollers.

These rollers deliver the material into hoppers arranged beneath/theretorts in such a way that all the elements or retorts having the sametransverse axis are served by the same hopper, in the bottom of whichtwo worms of opposite hand, mounted on` the same shaft, carry all thematerial towards an opening formed in the middle, where a singleconveyor for the whole battery, arranged along the longitudinal axis ofthe oven and perpendicularly to the different hoppers and worms,receixes the materialcollected by the latter. and transports it to theexterior.

The annexed drawings represent by way of example a form of constructionin accordance with the invention.

Figure 1 is a view in horizontal trans verse section through the oven.

Figure 2 is a view of the same in longitudinal vertical section alongthe broken line 2-2--2 of Figure 1, the right-hand half passing` throughthe chambers or retorts, and the left-hand half through the longitudinalwalls between these retorts.

Figure 3 is a view in. partial transverse vertical section, along theline 3 3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 represents on a larger scale a detail of Figure 3.

The oven is constituted (see Figure l) by a single block of masonry orbrickwork, in which are formed vertical distillation chambers or retorlsa, presenting in horizontal transverse section an ellipse like shape, ofwhich the major axis is considerably great er than the minor axis; thesechambers are divided into rows, in two directions at right angles to oneanother. In the example represented, there are ten rows of chambersarranged parallel to the longitudinal axis .fr :i1-of they block ofmasonry, and each of these ten longitudinal rows comprises sin elementsor chambers; in other words, there aie six rows ot ten chambers arrangedin the transverse direction of the block of ma- 10? sonry.

The arrangement ot' the elements or chambers of the oren is such thatthe masonrv work presents a substantially square horizontal section,which possesses the advantage of affording a surfalce ot minimumexternal radiation at the same time at a lower .bers a.

cost of installation with a maximum stability. The number ofdistillation elements or retorts can evidently vary, being determinedaccording to the production to be considered.

In the longitudinal walls of this block of masonry there are formed thehorizontal channels m and n for the gases which are to heat the chambersa while in the transverse walls between the chambers a there are formeduptakes or flues b connected to the chambers by assages b for the escapeof the distillation gases: each of the llues, arranged betwe ni twochambers a, a, communicates with the two chambers through these passagesb1 b.

The substance to be treated, brought to the base of the oven byhand-trucks or by any other means of transport, is conveyed by anelevator, such as a noria or a bucketchain (not represented), to the topof the oven, where it is dumped into a hopper c, surmounting the wholeblock of masonry and serving all the vertical retorts or cham- This hoper allows the discharge pell-mell or in a lieap of the material to betreated and constitutes both an oven-feed reservoir and a drying chamberfor preliminary drying of the material before its introduction into thedistillation chambers or retorts a. y

The drying chamber is not separated from the oven proper by anyobturation device such as a register, gate, valve or the like. Thesubstance to be treated distributes itself automatically into thedifferent wells or vertical ducts al, at the top of the distillationchambers or retorts a, and its regular descent into each of them isindicated directly by the simpleobservation of the upper level in thedrier. The descent of the material is a function only of the reductionof its own volume, due to the distillation, and of the working of thefurnace-dischar ing apparatus situated at the base of t e furnaceretorts, as described in detail hereafter.

The drier o is separated from the upper part of the heating zone in theretorts a by a suflicient layer of material for the latter toconstitute,an efective obturator between the drying zone and thedistillation zone.

The absolute continuity of contact thus obtained between the materialcontained in the retorts of the oven and that enclosed in the-drier,presents the great advantage of maintaining the, oven constantly filled,-in s ite of the reduction of volume caused by tlie distillation and inspite even of a momentary stoppage of the elevator apparatus serving .toli l the drying hopper c.

The drying is effected by means of the burnt gases derived from theheating of the retorts, the last heat-units being thus completelyexhausted from these gases, which are collected in a horizontal passaged sitof an inverted V, for ensuring the passage,

of the gases through the material which rests upon these screens andfills the vertical ducts a.1 between the longitudinal walls e and thetransverse walls f (Figure 3).

The heating of the material to be treated, thus preliminarily dried,takes place at the upper part of the retorts a, in the zone A igure 3),in contact with cast iron plates a2, forming the internal lining ofthese retorts; the heating starts at a relatively low temperature anprogressively increases from the drying tem rature up to about 400 to500 C. By t istime the material will have given up all its ori inalmoisture, and the greater part of its vo atileproducts, comprising thetarry oils. All these gases and vapours are easily evolved, inproportion as they are formed, through the numerous evacuation conduitsb1 in the transverse walls between the retorts a, and connected to theflues b `(Figure 2) as mentioned above; they likewise escape at theupper part of each retort into collector passages g, arranged above thecollector passages d' for the spent heating gases, at the top of thelongitudinal walls between the retorts. All these roducts of thedistillation are collected 1n a manifold h.

The semi-coke formed continues its descent in the vertical retorts ai ofthe oven, in contact with walls of refractory materials, raisedto ahigher and higher temtperature in the zone B (Figure 3). The

nal temperature of heating can thus be sufficiently high to expel thevolatile substances as completely as is desired according to the finalproduct to be obtained.

The heating of the retorts in the zones B and A is effected by thecombustion of.

gas and air in channels providedin the longitudinal walls between theretorts in the masonry. There can be utilized for this purpose the gaseswhich are evolved during the progressive distillation of the material;these gases are drawn off, as they are formed, by a fan or suctiondevice, which passes them through condensers, in which the tarry oilsare deposited as well as the ammoniacal 1i uors, and through suitableoil or acid was ers for the removal of the benzols/ and ammonia. Aftercomplete purification in the byroduct works, the gases are returned 'o te ovens to be distributed to each ot the longitudinal heating walls bymeans ot' conduits 1T of refractory `material the rate of consumptionbeing adjustable by means of valves arranged at the outside of the ovenupon the pipes -1 supplying these conduits from a gas main in? t leavingthese conduits i', the gases encounter air which has been preheated inthelchambers formed of refractory nmteriai'in the longitudinal walls;combustion takes place in the chamber l', and the burnt gases circulatein the channels m formed infthe longitudinal walls in the distillationone ll, and in the channels a foruu" in these same walls in the heatingzone A, before 'escaping by the collector' passage rl to ell'cct thedrying of the material in the hopper c.

The combustion in the chambers can be conveniently supervised throughwindows Z provided in the ends of each chamber (Figure 2); thisarrangement allows an accurate regulation of the temperature for thewhole extent of a longitudinal heating wall or pier.

The teniperature obtained in these combustion chambers is a maximum,diminishing progressively in the channels m and n, as the flames and thefumes give up their heat to the treated material, which gravitates inopposite direction in the retorts a.

Owing to the methodical heating thus obtained, and owing also to themeans of control and adjustment at disposal for keeping the temperatureuniform at the same level in the different retorts, the yield of theoven is a. maximum, not only trom the point of view of the by-productsand of the, daily capacity, but also from the point of view of economyin heating; this last advantage acquires a capital importance in thecaseA of the distillation of substances with large contents of moisture.

lVhen the distillation is finished, the coke (or residue of thedistillation) undergoes a direct cooling due to the injection of acurrent of steam which has been preheated in the channels o formed inthe longitudinal walls, atthe lower part of the oven; this steam,injected into the chambers of the oven through apertures o formed in thesides of the longitudinal walls of the oven, produces upon theincandescent coke the well known endothermic reaction for the formationof water gas. At the same time however this injection ot steam serves togenerate hydrocarbons ot more or less complex composition, which thusincrease in a substantial manner the yield of benzoles and oils obtainedby simple distillation.

llhe still hot material, continuing its descent, then undergoes anexternal cooling by the circulation of the current of steam in thechannels o of the longitudinal walls; the latter thus constitute arecuperato"y which is made of sufticient capacity to ob tain thecomplete cooling et' the. residue before its evacuation,

The discharge is effected by dirgributing rollers p '1, of which theases f are arranged parallel to one another. perpendicularly to themajor axis of the retorts a. of the oven. The :'iafts of these rollersare provided, externally of theV oven, with simi-v lar toothed wheels p2all meshing together, in such a way as to rotate adjacent rollers inopposite directions and to obtain the .simultaneous motion of all therollers by driving one only, arranged as near as pos sible to the centreso as to reduce the force of transmission.

From these distributing rollers p, constituting the dischargingmechanism propel', the material falls into sheet-iron hoppers r,arranged transversely beneath the oven, parallel to the axes of therollers '11; each hopper 7' is thus common to the series of ovenelements or retorts having the same transverse axis.

Two Archimedean screws s s of opposite hand, mounted upon the same axisin the bottom of each hop er r, bring back all the material dumped y therollers p p into the hopper, towards a common discharge opening arrangedat the centre, that is to say upon the longitudinal axis w-w of theblock of masonry of the oven (Figure 1). Each ot these openings liesabove a. horizontal conveyor t, common to the whole battery of retorts aof the oven and traveling along the longitudinal axis --a' of the oven,that is to say, perpendicularly to the axis of the Archimedean Screws 8s.

This conveyor is b preference completely closed so as to avoi dust, andthe coke or residue of distillation is thereby placed directly uponhand-trucks or upon any Suitable conveyor for its further utilization.The rollers the worms s and the conveycr t can be (iiiven by a singletransmission/mechanism, communicating at the same time to each of theseparts a suitable motion.

Having thus described my inventi n, what I claim is:-

1. A vertical apparatus for the c ntinuous distillation et lignite,peat, and like carbonaceous materials, comprising a block, a. number ofvertical retorts arranged in said block in rows in two directions atright angles to one another,-each retort present,- ing in cross sectiona length greater than its width,--and passages in the walls separatingSaid retorts, parallel to the major axes thereof for the assage ofheating gases, in com-A l2r J bination with flues standing verticallybe- 'tween the retorts, along the major axes of the latter, said fluesbeing adapted to collect the gases of distillation, and other passagesconnecting each of said retorts with said flues at a plurality ofheights.

2. In a vertical distillation apparatus as described in claim 1, asingle feed hopper at the top of the retorts continuously open to themall. a

3. In a vertical distillation apparatus as described in claim 1, ahopper above said retorts, and means of introducing into the bottom ofsaid hopper burned gases from the heating gaspassages.

4. In a vertical distillation apparatus as described in claim 1,'passage means in the lower part of the longitudinal walls adapted to thesuperheating of steam, and means at the top o said passage means, forintroducing the' steani into the retorts, as described.

5. In a vertical distillation a paratus as described in claim 1, a pairof sistributin rollers under each retort, the axes of sai rollers beingarranged at right angles to the major axes of the horizontal crosssection of the retorts, and means for imparting to substantially `therollers of each pair a rotation in opposite directions, substantially asdescribed. In witness whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name this10th day of July 1924.

JULIEN PIETERS.

